NOTE: The Old Man’s “Notable Quotes” category was becoming very populated. Who knew so many folks would be providing so many opportunities! At any rate, I’ve started a new page for 2010, aptly named “Notable Quotes II”. Depending on the material available, number III may show up by mid-year. We’ll wait and see. You can click on the following link or the button in the right sidebar for the original “Notable Quotes”.
Below you will find some quotes from different people that are/were relative to current and recent headlines. I feel these are worthy of repeating. The category is titled “Quotes of the Day”. In addition, I’ve included a category of supposedly famous quotes that I find applicable to many things today. Surprisingly, this category is titled “Famous Quotes”. Finally, you will find some general quotes, of which many are my own. These are simply titled “The Old Man’s Contributions”. I hope you find these interesting.
To read quotes in a particular category, click on that title under “Categories” and it will jump you to that category. Notice there is a jump link at the bottom of each category group to return to “Categories”.
Disclaimer: For the “Famous Quotes” category, The Old Man accepts no responsibility of historical accuracy.
(The latest entries are at the top of each category.)
Quotes of the Day
“Efficient market theory dominated economic thinking from the days of Ronald Reagan to the collapse of 2008. It was the rationale for deregulation, the cause of a massive transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to a tiny number of the very rich. Now it is dead and gone but Republican politicians won’t let go, and many in the media show no understanding of the issue.” From Republicans Are Locked in a Passionate Embrace with a Corpse and Won’t Let Go
“The problems of ‘freshwater’ economics–the school personified by Milt Friedman and the extremist ‘free market’ ideology that views government as the enemy, the ‘markets’ as always right, and any public role in economic development as ‘socialism’.” – Linda Beale in The Chicago School — Why Does Anybody Still Listen To It?
“If you had any doubt, any doubt whatsoever, that the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe, those doubts were erased today. Republicans across the country have cheered on crowds where these very images appeared” – Perry Bacon Jr. in Republican Fundraising Document Portrays Democrats As Evil
“Like earthquakes, Goldman Sachs can strike anytime. Its work can slumber undetected for years, only to erupt, unanticipated, with catastrophic consequences” – Harold Meyerson in Wall Street’s Finacial Aftershocks
Today’s Capitalist – “The government has all the responsibility, but no control over us or claims on our profits” – Author unknown
“It’s not too late for [Virginia Governor Bob] McDonnell to renounce this kind of socialism” – from [More Corporate Welfare] – Northrop Grumman Moving Headquarters to Maryland
“If [legislators] are extorted by any kind of pressure or promise, express or implied, direct or indirect, in the way of favor or immunity, then the giving or receiving becomes not only improper but criminal” – ex-Republican Senator Warren Bruce Rudman quoting President Theodore Roosevelt in Republicans Losing Their Way on Campaign Finance Reform
“Inevitably and predictably, the new senator from Massachusetts — Mr. 41, Mr. I-Drive-A-Truck, tea party poster dude — has disappointed his base by, alas, representing his constituents” – Kathleen Parker in The GOP’s Misguided Hunt for Heretics
“The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can’t afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that’s their problem” – Steven Pearlstein in At Summit, Republicans Prove They Aren’t Putting America’s Health First
“It should tell you everything you need to know that, in lobbying to retain its bank supervisory powers, the Fed’s allies include the big Wall Street banks. Do you really think those banks would be fighting to preserve the status quo if they thought the Fed would turn around and suddenly become more aggressive in its supervision?” – Steven Pearlstein in the Fed Should Stay Out of the Bank-Supervision Business
“I remember, as vividly as if it were yesterday, when we had a hearing in which Alan Greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes, saying that we didn’t really need to pay down the debt” – Hillary Clinton
“Never have so many members of the House and Senate behaved so well for so long before so many television cameras. That’s probably because their teacher carried a big rhetorical paddle.” – From Rep. Joe Barton (Republican) during the Health Care Reform summit.
“Half-baked justice; inadequate and misguided; very modest” – U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff remarks on the SEC’s final fine for Bank of America.
“The common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill founded Jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another.” – From George Washington’s Farewell Address that has been read in Congress for 117 years on Washington’s Birthday. No lawmakers, Democrats nor Republicans, were present when it was read on Monday, February 22, 2010. Published in From the Bluest of States, a Red Senator of a Different Color, talking about how Senator Scott Brown (R) voted for the jobs bill, highly disappointing the GOP leadership and most members of the Republican Party. But Republicans “favored [the bills] content”. So much for Brown’s admiration by the other Republicans.
“In the long run, establishment Republicans are destined to disappoint [the tea party movement]” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in What Fuels the Grass-Roots Rage
Finally — a high-level Republican admits to the 8-year spending craze under the Bush administration: “Armey said in an interview that tea-party activists will gravitate toward Republican candidates only if the GOP shows it has been ‘rehabilitated’ following almost a decade of increased government spending under President George W. Bush.”
“The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision last week giving American corporations the right to unlimited political spending was an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in Supreme Court ruling calls for a populist revolt
“These are the men and women who placed politics above the long-term needs of the country and rewarded their own narrow constituencies, rather than serving the national interest” – David S. Broder on Senate’s rejection of forming a fiscal commission.
“The Supreme Court has opened the door to a new era of big and possibly shadowy election spending, rolled back anti-corruption laws and emboldened critics of fundraising limits to press on. In the middle of it all will be voters, trying to figure out who’s telling the truth. The court’s ruling Thursday lets corporate America start advertising candidates much as they market products and tell viewers to vote for or against them” – Sharon Theimer in Will Corporate Ads Buy 2010 Voters?
“It was wrong because nothing in the First Amendment dictates that corporations must be treated identically to people. And it was dangerous because corporate money, never lacking in the American political process, may now overwhelm both the contributions of individuals and the faith they may harbor in their democracy” – Editorial from The Washington Post
“The day the Bush administration took over from President Bill Clinton in 2001, America enjoyed a $236 billion budget surplus — with a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. When the Bush administration left office, it handed President Obama a $1.3 trillion deficit — and projected shortfalls of $8 trillion for the next decade. During eight years in office, the Bush administration passed two major tax cuts skewed to the wealthiest Americans, enacted a costly Medicare prescription-drug benefit and waged two wars, without paying for any of it” – What Karl Rove Got Wrong On the U.S. Deficit
“They backed the truck up to Fort Knox in broad daylight. They emptied it out, we rescued them and they get $150 billion in bonuses” – Andy Stern, president of the Services Employees International Union, as quoted in Wool Anger Over Wall Street Bonuses By Governing How They’re Handed Out
“The pols don’t want to mess with institutions that have real power, are sources of campaign contributions and can offer lucrative post-public-office employment” – Allan Sloan in “Let Wall Street Run Wild, Without My Money”
“By the way, these S Corporation shareholders are mostly comprised of the “small businessmen” that the right-wing anti-tax crowd constantly claims is overtaxed. Hmmmm. Looks like the bigger issue with this group is noncompliance, not overtaxation” – Linda Beale in S Corporations: GAO report, recommendations regarding noncompliance
“A huge, unregulated boom in which almost all the upside went directly into private hands, followed by a gigantic bust in which the losses were socialized” – from a review on John Lanchester’s book, “I.O.U. – Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay”
“Will the Tea Party crowd come out against taxes on banks and finance in the name of their libertarian principles? If they do, what kind of populists are they? After a year in which progressives played defense, it’s time to call some bluffs.” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in Obama Needs To Cut His Wall Street Tag
“Interesting that Cheney should bring that up (Obama releasing Gitmo prisoners). It happens that at least two men who were released from Guantanamo appear to have gone on to play major roles as al-Qaeda lieutenants in Yemen. Who let these dangerous people out of our custody? They were set free by the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney” – Eugene Robinson in Dick Cheney’s lies about President Obama
“Though we do have taxation with representation, it surely isn’t taxation with representation of all. It’s taxation with representation of those who can afford to pay for the influencing of legislation, including tax legislation, and especially tax legislation” – James Edward Maule in A Tax Policy Determination Clue
“I suggest that if you can provide yourself with a better-than-average living without working, a very rare luxury indeed, you are in fact rich” – Tom Bozzo in The Rich *Are* Different
“When the Republicans wanted to enact huge tax cuts for individuals and businesses in 2001 and 2003, they realized that it would result in long-term deficits of unforgiving amounts [color added]. So they scaled back their package with a gimmick–a sunsetting tax provision that, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother, caused everything to go back to its former (natural) state on the stroke of midnigh — midnight 2010, that is. Thus, they were able to claim that their package of cuts was much less costly than it would be if their plan to make the cuts permanent before 2010 rolled around materialized. It was smoke and mirrors—‘we’ll do this and claim our cuts are cheap; once the cuts are enacted, we can accuse anyone opposed to making them permanent of raising taxes and no one will remember it was our gimmick to cover the real cost of the cuts’” – Linda Beale in Tax Gimicks then and now – sunsetting tax cuts; temporary tax hikes
“This has been a moment for individuals to make war on one another” – Dan Balz in For Democrats, health-care debate exposes deep wounds
“If the Republican Party had its way — and God sees to it that it doesn’t — the country would by now have reverted to the barter system and the unemployment rate would be around 25 percent. The GOP economic program simply does not exist, and even Bush knew this. When push came to shove, he tossed his ideology overboard and used government money to bail out financial institutions” – Richard Cohen describing what the GOP wishes would happen to President Obama in Barack Obama: A leader without a cause.
“On one side, we’re supposed to believe that markets are efficient and wonderful; on the other, we’re supposed to believe that anything which constrains buildable land — which, you know, sometimes happens for entirely natural reasons — will send markets into wild irrational swings. Those poor, fragile, omnipotent markets, able to handle anything except mild government intervention …” – Paul Krugman in Desert Bubbles
“The past 10 years will be seen as a time when the United States badly lost its way by using our military power carelessly, misunderstanding the real challenges to our long-term security and pursuing domestic policies that constrained our options for the future while needlessly threatening our prosperity” – E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Decade When the U.S. Lost Its Way
Famous Quotes
“Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs by facts” – economist Henry Rosovsky
The Old Man’s Contributions
“When Republicans control the White House and Congress again, the Tea Party movement will desolve” – February 1, 2010
What does a man gain if his political party becomes the victor but the country is lost?
